The salvage debate

Your front-page article headlined “The Salvage Debate” was ludicrously one-sided. I hope to see an article in the near future providing a better account of the potential damage caused by post-fire salvage logging.

Let’s be clear: Burned forests are not ruined. If a piece of BLM land was too difficult to log for environmental reasons before a wildfire, those same constraints usually pertain afterwards.

Cam Patterson

The Greensprings

Another view

Two points regarding Michael Barone’s dismissal of high-speed rail (“Buttigieg on track to lead us into the 19th century,” Mail Tribune, March 19):

1. Barone’s cited authority, libertarian economist Randal O’Toole, is an Oregonian! For years, O’Toole produced angry, rug-chewing attacks on Portland’s modest light-rail system.

2 In explaining that high-speed rail is only practical for relatively small geographic areas with short travel distances, Barone forgets to mention China. With over 16,000 miles in operation (our own country’s total: zilch) and over 6,000 miles under construction, China leads the world in high-speed rail. I find it discouraging that China’s authoritarian model can do big things quickly, while our democracy dithers.

Ron Iverson

Ashland

Don’t scare the children

Many bad actions were decreed in response to the pandemic. The worst is how we have mistreated and frightened our children.

Now, we are about to send them to school with the narrative that people are poison, so they must not get too close to anyone. Since they also are poison, they must wear masks to avoid killing their friends.

Children cannot put these scares in rational perspective.

In no way does the low infection rate in children justify such meanness.

Ira Edwards

Medford